161–170 of 173 posts
I don't know why, but this is really disturbing.
"Hey Siri, find me a widget"
"I've found three locations with widget in your area. Would you like me t... WHOA! Check out the bytes on that ad!"
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It's a wild story. The craziest part was that the players who intentionally spread the plague would retreat to other regions and log out in an attempt to incubate the disease across victim die-off and mod actions, then return to cities to reinfect people. That's what got epidemiologists hooked, because disease control in the face of enemy action is (fortunately) short on real-world data. The question of how the plagu…
I've at times wondered why Ebola hasn't been weaponized. Rather like slow motion suicide bombing. If you're healthy, you have a few days of decent fitness, while shedding virus. It'd be hard, psychologically. But consider the 9/11 attackers. They worked for months, preparing to suicide.
The question occurred to me when I heard about the epidemiology of Ebola in pre-Spanish South America. Supposedly (haven't verified) the disease incubated in wild animals, and occasionally crossed over into human populations. What limited an epidemic was that travel was slow and rare enough that the disease would spread and debilitate a single settlement before anyone could transfer it too far. (Obviously late-stage patients don't do a lot of traveling.)
So the question becomes why this hasn't changed with increased access to travel. Quarantine measures and sensible behavior appear to be the answer for inadvertent spread, but what's stopped malicious transfer? Is it just too hard to find and contract before quarantine goes into place? Is it tactically or psychologically unappealing for the groups willing to use other suicide tactics?
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Did you read it in the original Chinese, or the English translation? I haven't read either, but it's possible that the English version misses a lot of nuance from the original version. (It's also quite possible the original is crap, and the translation is doing a very adequate job.)
I actually thought the translator did a pretty good job (not to say that I can read Chinese or do a direct comparison). My only complaint was that I wish they'd westernized the names--they all sound too similar to my American ears.
In a lot of ways I liked it because the entire thinking behind the book was a different cultural thinking.
But the resulting style is definitely a bit awkward in English and sometimes it was a little bit of a slog.
Interesting they mention and get quotes from the author of the Three Body Problem series. I just finished reading that series, and the whole time I had the feeling that it was written more to convince people of something than to actually entertain the reader. The ideas in the books were pretty amazing, unique, and imaginative; but the story and writing itself was quite sub-par. edit: I listened (audio books) to the E…
Yeah, that's the vast, vast majority of sci-fi in a nutshell.
- Amiga is behind the novel "Ready Player One" (so they will make a craaaazy comeback)
- Trump paid GRRM for ASOF&I (so the people enjoy the mix of politics and mental illness)
- Hollywood is highly connected with cigarette manufacturers, liquor manufacturers and (of course) the US army.
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I had "My Son, The Physicist" in my 9th grade. The mom comes and suggests the son about "continuous conversation" with some astronaut's stuck on Jupiter's moon - Ganymede (if I am not wrong and remember correctly)
> if I am not wrong and remember correctly You are not and you do: http://readnovelonline.com/ScienceFiction/Asimov41/27366.htm... .
Companies commissioning stories has gone on for a long time. For example, the Isaac Asimov story "My Son, The Physicist" was commissioned by an electronics company to run in an ad in "Scientific American". Another Asimov example. "Think", IBM's in-house magazine, commissioned Asimov to write a story based on this quote from J. B. Priestly: > Between midnight and dawn, when sleep will not come and all the old wounds b…
I always remember my Grandfather suggesting that Michael Crichton (sp?) wrote a bunch of stuff to order by the government. I was never entirely sure I believed him, but then never entirely dismissed it (as evidenced by this comment).
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I've at times wondered why Ebola hasn't been weaponized. Rather like slow motion suicide bombing. If you're healthy, you have a few days of decent fitness, while shedding virus. It'd be hard, psychologically. But consider the 9/11 attackers. They worked for months, preparing to suicide.
I've wondered this also. The question occurred to me when I heard about the epidemiology of Ebola in pre-Spanish South America. Supposedly (haven't verified) the disease incubated in wild animals, and occasionally crossed over into human populations. What limited an epidemic was that travel was slow and rare enough that the disease would spread and debilitate a single settlement before anyone could transfer it too fa…
I mean, consider that doctor who realized that he'd been infected. He freaked, and fled to South Africa for treatment. He survived, but a nurse who treated him died. What if she had been slow to show symptoms, and had infected family and friends? What if she had a side business as a prostitute?
Anyway, enough of that. Now I'm reminded of Ebola Syndrome aka Yi boh lai beng duk (伊波拉病毒). It's a rather gross Hong Kong horror film. But like the Living Dead films, it's very funny at times.
And destroyed the Greek economy. Which speaks volumes about his competence as an economist.